SANA experiments on thin CoCr films with perpendicular domain structure

The application of small angle neutron scattering in the study of thin magnetic layers used in perpendicular recording media has been demonstrated. The domain structure in these materials is characterized by the domain height perpendicular to the film and the domain width in the plane of the film. These quantities have been deduced from the two dimensional scattering pattern. The domain height is found from the momentum dependence of the anisotropy of the scattering where the film normal makes an angle of θ degrees with the beam direction. The domain width in the plane of the film has been analysed from the scattering profile itself. In principle also angular variations of the domain orientation may be analysed from the momentum dependence of the anisotropy.